


The Space In Between

by killingmonsterswritingthings



Series: 10 Days of LawLu 2017 [8]
Category: One Piece
Genre: 10 days of LawLu, Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, M/M, Minor Injuries, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 22:57:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11091672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killingmonsterswritingthings/pseuds/killingmonsterswritingthings
Summary: The spaceship Thousand Sunny crashlands on a lonely planet, and with their only medic injured the Strawhats need to find someone to treat them on the planet's surface.





	The Space In Between

**Author's Note:**

> first i was like: hey i could write more dragon au but i didn't really feel like it and then i remembered what i love most are pirates and space so... space pirates
> 
> written for the 8th prompt of 10 days of lawlu, June 4 - A is for... **Alternate Universe**

Luffy really, really hated when anything broke on the ship and neither Franky or Usopp could fix it in time. He especially hated it when it meant an emergency landing on a planet he had never heard of before.

“We’re coming down hard!” Franky announced loudly over the comms. “Better brace yourselves.”

The Thousand Sunny hurtled towards the surface of the planet they had only wanted to pass and Luffy looked out the observation window to see the ground coming closer with every fraction of a second. Then they were flying over a lake, only barely making it to shore, water most likely spraying up behind them. He told himself he could feel them skimming the top of the waves.

“I hope all your seatbelts are on!” he yelled.

He gripped the armrest of his captain’s chair hard.

Then the Sunny hit the ground. He would have been thrown out of his chair if not for his harness, which dug into his shoulders and chest uncomfortably. They skidded across the beach and onto a field until coming to a stop at the far end of it.

 

“Is everyone alright?” Luffy asked.

Everyone on the bridge nodded, albeit they were looking a little pale. Nami was shutting off all essential flying and landing mechanisms – they didn’t need them anymore now, and conserving energy was key on an unknown planet.

“Uh, Usopp’s hurt,” Franky said over the comms once again.

“Bring him down to med bay,” Luffy said before switching channels. “Chopper, are you there?” No answer. “Chopper, come in please.” He grimaced, meeting his navigator’s eyes.

“I’ll go check on them,” Nami said and unbuckled her belt. She got up and vanished through the doors towards the stairs that led down to med bay.

She came in over the comms about a minute later.

“Uh, we may have a little problem.”

“What is it?” Zoro asked before Luffy could.

“Chopper’s unconscious and they’ve got a pretty nasty headwound.”

“They must’ve slipped out of their harness again,” Robin mused.

Luffy was already out of his chair and halfway to the door. “I’m coming down!” he yelled. He didn’t even know if Nami could hear him or not.

“Guess I have the con…” Zoro mumbled behind him. He was already used to Luffy running off, so Luffy didn’t worry. The ship wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

He hurried down to med bay and burst through the doors to Nami pressing a compress to Chopper’s furry head.

She looked up at him and breathed a sigh of relief. “Come here and hold this,” she instructed and Luffy immediately kneeled next to her to take Chopper from her. She got up and retrieved a spray from one of the cabinets.

“Take it off,” she said as she returned and Luffy slowly removed the compress, hoping that no more blood would come rushing out. Nami immediately applied the spray to the wound.

“This’ll seal the wound for now,” she said. “But they need actual medical attention to make sure nothing is broken or concussed, and they can’t do that by themself.”

“Especially not if they’re unconscious,” Luffy said. “But… we don’t have a second doctor.”

Nami sighed. “Guess we’ll have to go out there and find one.”

She was about to press the comms button on her shirt when Franky came through the doors, leading Usopp. He was bleeding from a cut on his arm but seemed otherwise fine.

“I thought I’d come check up on this mess,” Franky said.

“Good timing,” Nami said. She waved Usopp over to sit down on the bed so she could clean and seal his wound. “We need one of those gurney’s you made. We gotta go out and find a doctor for Chopper.”

Then Luffy pressed his comms button. “Sanji? Come down here, you gotta help Franky with Usopp and Chopper.”

There was an excessively loud sigh, then Sanji replied: “On my way.”

Luffy stood up, satisfied, and carefully picked up Chopper and set them down on the biobed next to Usopp. Nami had just finished dressing his wound.

“Let’s go evaluate this planet and put together a landing party,” he said to her and she nodded.

“Don’t let either of them move,” she instructed Franky before Luffy and her hurried out of the room, back towards the bridge.

 

They had barely entered the bridge again when Luffy was already throwing around questions.

“We need to get out there and find a doctor, and probably somewhere we can get parts to repair the damage the Sunny sustained. Robin, Nami, what kind of planet is it?” he asked as Nami was sitting down on her post again to inspect the readouts.

“Nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere,” Nami said. “A little thin, but we’ve been in worse. So I don’t think we need suits.”

“The terrain seems fine and I have seen no signatures of larger animals so far,” Robin added.

“There’s a settlement uhhh about two kilometers from here,” Nami said.

“So they’ve probably already spotted us,” Luffy said. He turned to Zoro. “Any suggestions?”

“Landing-party wise?” Zoro guessed. “Someone needs to stay and watch the ship, and Franky needs to assess the damage properly, so I’d suggest the four of us” – he motioned to Nami, Robin, Luffy and himself – “plus Chopper, with Brook, Usopp, Sanji and Franky watching the ship.”

 

That was what they agreed on, and after preparing some gear they exited the Sunny about ten minutes later.

They walked down the ramp and Luffy ran his hand over the skull painted next to the doors. “We’ll be back,” he promised the ship, as he did every time he had to leave her unable to fly on any planet.

The Thousand Sunny wasn’t a big ship, but it had enough room for everyone, and it was Luffy’s and Franky’s pride and joy. She wasn’t his first ship, and it had hurt like hell to give up the Going Merry a good four years back, but she had been falling apart from under them, and getting parts for her had been literally impossible. So Franky had built them the Sunny.

Luffy tore himself from his thoughts and hurried after the others.

They hadn’t been able to take the speeder, for one because it wouldn’t fit five people, and also because it had taken damage in the landing and wasn’t a priority.

Chopper was on the hover gurney, flanked by Robin and Franky, while Nami was in the lead, her tablet with a rough map of their surroundings guiding them towards the settlement.

 

 

The settlement was much smaller than Luffy had expected. It was basically just a village settled into the spot between a river and a forest.

“I really hope they have a capable medic,” Nami said as they passed between the first, rundown looking houses.

Luffy just knocked onto a random door. “There’s only one way to find out,” he told the others.

An elderly, frail looking woman with skin in tones of dark reds and browns opened the door. “Oh, hello.”

“Hi,” Luffy said, putting on his brightest smile. “We’re not from here and were just wondering if you had a doctor in this town?”

She smiled right back. “Of course. Take a right at the next one and it’s the best maintained house on that street. The fourth on the left, if I remember correctly.”

“Thanks so much, granny!” Luffy waved and took a step back to fall back in with the others again.

“Let’s go.”

 

The house really wasn’t hard to find. All other houses on the street were in various stages of decay and seemed vacant, but the one the woman had described had a fresh paint job and the roof looked nowhere near caving in.

This time Luffy didn’t even knocked on the door but barged right in.

“Hello! Anyone home?”

“Luffy!” Nami hissed. “Manners.”

“What?” he asked over his shoulder. “It’s a doctor’s office.”

Then he felt a blade at his neck. “Who are you?”

The others gasped and Luffy could hear Zoro unsheathe his own sword. He held out a hand in the direction he knew his first mate to be and met the eyes of the man in front of him. They were yellow, and piercing, and the skin around them was dark, although part of the man’s face was discolored.

“Just someone in need of help,” Luffy said calmly. Yeah, maybe it hadn’t been so smart to just walk into the house but hey, it had always worked for him so far.

“We’re not here to cause trouble,” Nami said. “Although our captain here may cause some anyway. We crash landed a good way outside your village and our ship’s doctor sustained an injury in the process.” Luffy knew she was motioning at Chopper on the gurney, even though she was behind him.

The man looked between them and then slowly lowered his sword – which was just as long as he was tall. Luffy raised his eyebrows. “Get a lot of bandits here?”

“No, I just don’t like surprises,” the man said.

“Fair enough.” Luffy nodded. “Sorry for barging in on you. I’m Monkey D. Luffy.”

“Trafalgar Law,” the man said. “Get them in here then.” He waved at them and Robin guided the gurney further into the house.

Law bent over Chopper. “I think it’s safe to move them,” he said and pushed the gurney through a door into an examination room. “Wait here.”

“Nuh uh,” Luffy made and followed him. “No way. I’m not leaving them alone with you.”

“Suspicious, huh?” Law made and grinned. “Fine then, but just you. The room’s small and I can’t have all of you annoying me while I work.”

Luffy followed him into the room – although Zoro looked like he wanted to protest – and shut the door behind them.

 

Law was a good doctor. Luffy had only the most basic of medical knowledge, but he knew a good medic when he saw one. His hands were steady and he worked precisely.

“There’s no fractures in their skull,” he said after scanning Chopper. “And the brain seems alright too. Your navigator did a good job patching them up. I’ll give them a shot and then we’ll wait for them to wake up so I can run some response tests.”

Luffy nodded. “You know any places that make or fix ships around here?” he asked while he watched Law load up a hypo. “We need some parts for our ship.”

“My friend runs a garage on the other side of the village,” Law said.

Luffy grimaced. “A garage? I don’t know if that’ll help much. We have a mechanic, just no spare parts.”

Law leveled him with a stare. “Shachi and Bepo used to work on the base on the other side of the planet. They know their shit, and they can get you your parts in no time.”

“Okay then,” Luffy said. “We’ll check it out later.”

 

Chopper woke up about a minute later.

“Where am I? What happened?”

“Some godforsaken town on some godforsaken planet,” Law replied, leaning over them and testing their pupil response again. “Your ship crash-landed and you got hurt so your crew brought you to me.”

Chopper’s eyes focused on Luffy. “Luffy!”

“You’ll be alright,” Luffy said.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t give medical opinions,” Law said drily but then, turning back to Chopper, nodded. “Although you most likely will be.”

“I’m glad,” Luffy and Chopper said at the same time.

“You should get some rest, just to be sure,” Law said.

“We’ll just drag them after us on the hover gurney as long as we’re here,” Luffy said cheerfully and opened the door back to the waiting room of the office. “Guys, Chopper’s gonna be fine!”

“That’s a relief,” Robin said.

There was a deep sigh from Law while Chopper hopped from the biobed back onto the gurney. “Come on, I’ll show you the way to my friend’s garage, because it’s hard to find if you don’t know your way around here.”

“I appreciate it,” Luffy said. “Zoro would probably get lost otherwise.”

“Oh _haha_ ,” Zoro made, annoyance clear in his voice.

 

 

So Law led them through the village, past houses with their roof missing, and houses with no doors or windows.

“What happened here?” Luffy wanted to know.

Law only shrugged. “People moved away.” He rubbed his arm uncomfortably. “There was a bout of illness about twenty years back and a lot of people died.”

Luffy opened his mouth but Nami elbowed him in the side so he didn’t press it further. He did know when to shut up.

“We’re getting close,” Law said, a little clipped.

“Franky? Any word on what parts we’ll need?” Robin asked over the comms.

“Ah, there you are! How’s Chopper? We need a new alternator,” Franky said immediately. “I’ve got spare fuses, so that’s alright. But as much plating as you can get so I can repare the damage to the hull. Cola would be good if they had any because our supplies are running low, but we can manage if they don’t.”

“Gotcha,” Robin said. She turned to Nami. “You got all that?”

Nami waved her tablet. “Yup. And I assume you’ll remember anyway.”

Robin grinned and didn’t say anything further.

 

 

The garage was just as small as Law’s office, but well maintained and the two mechanics seemed cheery.

“We’ve got a bunch of plating out back,” Shachi told them. “There’s a ship graveyard a dozen kilometers or so north of here, and we love salvaging – not much to do here besides that. There’s probably also an alternator out there.”

It took a while to find everything, but they managed eventually.

Getting all the parts back to the Sunny proved a little difficult, but Bepo loaned them a transport speeder that Nami took back to the ship while the others opted to walk back.

 

Law trailed after them to the edge of the village; hovering, silent, a little unsettling maybe and a mystery to Luffy. There he stopped.

“I hope you fix your ship and get off this godforsaken planet,” he said. “Good luck.”

“You should come with us,” Luffy said, impulsively, as he did so many things.

Law shook his head. “If I’m leaving it’s on my own terms,” he said. He seemed like someone who _did_ want to leave to Luffy and Luffy really wanted him to come with them, but he also knew that he couldn’t force people to do anything.

 

 

So they left without him, and fixed the Sunny, and were soon back on their way to Raftel, the last planet on the edge of the Universe, but Luffy kept thinking of the lonely doctor on the lonely planet.

**Author's Note:**

> title from against me!'s [haunting, haunted, haunts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAF9Fzk_kdc)
> 
> come visit me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/luffylaws) and [tumblr](https://leiathelight.tumblr.com), or leave me a comment!


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